


Calling Home

by crackdkettle



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Stucky Remix 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23418802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crackdkettle/pseuds/crackdkettle
Summary: “Does that mean you’ll finally cave and let Shuri give you a damn phone?”Bucky and Steve chat about his life in Wakanda.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 17
Kudos: 43
Collections: Stucky Remix 2020





	Calling Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FanFicAddict7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFicAddict7/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Freak](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22247377) by [FanFicAddict7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFicAddict7/pseuds/FanFicAddict7). 



> This is a coda to the wonderful FanFicAddict7's fic "Freak" for the 2020 Stucky Remix. Thank you for letting me play in your 'verse for a bit!

As soon as Bucky stepped through the doorway of his hut, his phone lit up to let him know he had a missed call.

“Dammit,” he muttered. Shuri kept reminding him he could carry it with him wherever he went, but it still wasn’t second-nature to do so. It had only been a month since Bucky had taken T’Challa up on his offer to let him live in Wakanda permanently, and Steve had left to do… whatever he was doing with Wilson, Romanoff, and the kid.

Sure enough, the missed call was from Steve, checking in as he did every week, although he was a day early this time, which meant he knew he wouldn’t be available for it the next day. Bucky tried not to imagine why. He wished Steve were slightly less noble, slightly less burdened by his own sense of duty, just enough that he would agree to stay in Wakanda with Bucky instead of running around the globe being a hero.

But then, of course, he wouldn’t have been Steve.

Bucky hit the  _ call back _ button. The second ring cut off halfway through, replaced by Steve’s voice still addressing someone on his end; the words were muffled, but the tone was jocular. Bucky felt a slight pang.

“Buck!” Steve’s voice was clear now. “I was starting to think you weren’t gonna get back to me tonight.”

“Yeah, sorry, I keep forgetting to take my phone with me, and I only just got home,” said Bucky.

The pause that followed was so long Bucky pulled the phone away from his ear to check if the call dropped.

“Steve?”

“Yeah, sorry, I— uh, I got distracted. So uh, what were you doing before you... came home.”

Bucky frowned. Steve’s voice sounded strange and his words were stilted.

“Went on a hike,” he said, deciding to let it go for now. “Visited a few neighbors. Fed the goats.”

“Sounds nice,” said Steve in the same strange tone.

“It was,” said Bucky softly, with a faint feeling of surprise as he realized it was true.

There was another long pause, and then Steve said in a more normal, teasing tone, “Shuri show you how to send pictures yet?” 

Bucky rolled his eyes, though of course the expression was lost on Steve, thousands of miles away.

“You realize I probably have a better grasp of twenty-first century technology than you do, right?”

“So you keep claiming, but I’ve yet to see the proof.” He could hear Steve’s smile, which was something he hadn’t known you could hear until they’d started having these weekly phone calls. Now he could picture it: Steve’s soft, teasing smile, which in his imagination contained no trace of the heartache that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in the back of his eyes.

“You want proof? I’ll give you proof. Just remember you asked for it, punk.”

They bantered for a few more minutes before Steve said he had to go, his voice apologetic. As soon as he hung up, Bucky scrolled through his camera roll, selected a photo of his favorite goat, slapped a filter on it just to prove he knew a thing or two about these so-called “smart phones”, then scrawled  _ I start fights I know I can’t win  _ in the upper righthand corner and drew a speech bubble around it.

He texted it to Steve, along with one sentence:  _ I call this one Steve. _

Steve texted back a picture of his own middle finger. Later, Bucky would realize it was the first unselfconscious laughter that had been drawn from him since he fell.


End file.
